Skillsoft Blog

The period between the holidays and spring is littered with depressing dates and down in the dumps newspaper columns. From Blue Monday—supposedly the most depressing day of the year—and weeks of uninterrupted rain to tales of Christmases financed by payday loans and retailers in trouble, it can be hard to imagine the sun and its rays of hope appearing on the horizon.

But it will, and there is plenty to look forward to this summer. Andy Murray will attempt to defend his Wimbledon crown, Iron Maiden are headlining Sonisphere festival, and on 17 July we have the small matter of 2014 Skillsoft Perspectives EMEA.

What a day

Bigger and better than ever before, our annual conference returns to its popular 8 Northumberland Avenue home, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square. This event is always a highlight of our calendar, as we get to speak face-to-face with the people who use our learning systems, and dedicate a day to exploring trends and innovations with those in the learning industry who know it best.

We are proud to develop talent within a long list of game-changing organisations, so it is only fitting that we have organised for a member of the House of Lords and an international government advisor to speak at the event. Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE works as a scientist, writer and broadcaster alongside her Westminster role, and we look forward to hearing her take on the impact that scientific and technological advancements have on business management and leadership.

Sir Ken Robinson, meanwhile, works with governments across Europe, Asia and USA to develop education, creativity and innovation. Just for the day, Sir Ken will turn focus towards your businesses, investigating practical ways you can find and develop talent and skills.

The ever-popular former director of people and policy at BT, Caroline Waters, will also be joining us—this HR guru’s anecdotes are not to be missed.

Get inspired

This year’s event will also play host to the inaugural Skillsoft Inspire awards, an event to showcase the great work that L&D professionals are doing across EMEA. There are five diverse categories that we hope will inspire lots of award entries:

Best elearning project

Best compliance initiative

Team of the year

Best new implementation

Screen stars award

The winners will be picked by our star-studded judging panel, which is a real who’s who of the L&D community:

Co-chair of the Engage for Success movement, David MacLeod OBE

Charles Jennings, Founder of the 702010 Forum

CEO of the 157 Group of FE colleges and Whitehall advisor, Lynne Sedgmore CBE

Susannah Clements, who has almost three decades of HR work under her belt, and is Deputy Chief Executive of the CIPD

Entry packs will be arriving on your desks at the end of January, and materials to help encourage learning events within organisations are available on our website. Nominations close on 18 April, and judging will take place on 2 May. The winning organisations will then be invited to present a case study of their achievements at Perspectives.

Even if you’re not entering this year, we challenge you to inspire elearning with these six activities on the Inspire website. Every office is a stage, so come and be a star.

Making the link

This is going to be a valuable day for your business: we will develop an understanding of how to link learning to business value and maximise learning spend, with Skillsoft experts on hand to explain future product direction and strategy.

There is an endless stream of stories about skills shortages in the media, but together we can remedy that; attendees will leave Perspectives full of ideas of how to optimise learning budgets and make their organisation agile. Through peer-to-peer best practice guides, social and mobile-optimised content and actionable information and materials, we will lift any clouds that linger over our customers’ L&D programmes. Let the sun shine!